How Can I Extend My Liability Coverage?

In this litigious society, no one is immune from potential lawsuits. Anyone with significant assets might need protection from the devastating effects of a liability lawsuit.

Elected officials and members of boards may be especially vulnerable. It’s not uncommon for plaintiffs to name everyone involved in an incident who has any perceived authority, responsibility, or ability to pay.

Personal liability lawsuits sometimes award the future earnings of the defendant. This makes many self-employed people, and some corporate officers, vulnerable to personal liability suits.

Fortunately, there is a way to help protect yourself. You can supplement both your auto and homeowners policies with excess liability insurance, or an “umbrella policy.” For as little as a few hundred dollars per year, umbrella liability policies may provide between $1 million and $5 million of protection from negligence claims, libel, slander, or defamation for you and your household members. And by buying your auto, homeowners, and excess liability policies from the same company, you may be able to reduce the total cost by as much as 15%.

Most individual liability policies, however, don’t cover occupational risks such as professional malpractice. In many cases, professional organizations such as the American Medical Association and the American Bar Association offer group policies for their members. The state equivalents of these organizations are usually quite aggressive in finding group providers to protect their members. In some professions, a local member may take the additional responsibility of helping to administer the group insurance for the state’s participants — overseeing and monitoring the coverage and costs and helping watch for abuses.

Because liability is an area connected with ongoing litigation, it changes often. Professionals should closely follow developments in their own fields in order to avoid expensive mistakes. In many businesses and professions, there are watchdog groups appointed to provide current information. Large groups often evaluate competitive policies annually to assess the performance of their group’s insurance company. Such an organization may change insurance companies on a regular basis, as this is a very competitive area.

When evaluating your personal liability, consider the following:

Everyone in your household should be covered, including those who don’t live at home.

Federal and state insurance and securities rules and regulations prohibit registered representative(s) and/or investment adviser representative(s) from soliciting, offering and selling any insurance or securities products or providing investment advice until they are properly registered and licensed in each state jurisdiction.

Retirement Income Advisers, Inc. is not a subsidiary of Voya Financial Advisors, Inc.

Due to various state regulations and registration requirements concerning the dissemination of information regarding investment products and services, we are currently required to limit access of the following pages to individuals residing in states where we are currently registered. A Broker/Dealer, Registered Investment Adviser, Registered Representative or Investment Adviser Representative may only transact business in a particular state after licensure or satisfying qualifications requirements of that state, or only if they are excluded or exempted from the state's Broker/Dealer, Registered Investment Adviser, or Registered Representative or Investment Adviser Representative requirements, as the case may be; and follow-up, individualized responses to consumers in a particular state by Broker/Dealer, Registered Investment Adviser, Registered Representative or Investment Adviser Representative that involve either the effecting or attempting to effect transactions in securities or the rendering of personalized investment advice for compensation, as the case may be, shall not be made without first complying with the state's Broker/Dealer, Registered Investment Adviser, Registered Representative or Investment Adviser Representative requirements, or pursuant to an applicable state exemption or exclusion.

The information on this website is intended for use only by residents of the states listed below. Securities related services may not be provided to individuals residing in any state not listed.We are licensed to sell Insurance Products in the following states: North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia and Washington.We are registered to sell Securities in the following states: North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Washington and California.